The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-02-09


sixty thousand times their own weight
in thirty days. Some eat one hun
dred times their weight in twenty
four hours and some increase their
weight two hundred per cent in the
same time. Speaking of the insects
infesting the more common plants, such
as the currant-worm, an emulsion of
kerosene is effective in their destruc-
ton. This emulsion is made by taking
a gallon of boiling water, dissolving in
it half pound of hard soap and adding
two gallons of kerosene. This is agi-
tated or churned until it becomes well
Mixed or becomes what is known as
kerosene butter. This can be kept till
wanted for use, when it should be di-
luted ten times its volume with water
and used to spray the bushes. The
same, little weaker perhaps, would be
excellent for the aphis, commonly
known as the pant-louse. Tobacco
smoke is used by florists for the same
purpose. Soft soap may be used in
stead of hard, in the proportion of eight
parts water to one of soap, and kero-
sene added to suit, which should be
treated as the frst-named, and when
used should be diluted with from fifteen
to twenty times its volume of water.
Another remedy is satpeter. This,
dissolved in water and put around
squash-vines, is said to keep off that
nasty-brown squash-bug. And this
kills two birds with one stone, for ii
not only keeps away the bugs but is a
fertilizer as well. The white grub, the
larva of the May beetle, does great
1nn1 At IL To trnN 1.nt. t.tr
beds, etc, by eating the roots. This
grub is not at all the same as the one
found in manure, which is the larva of
the dung-beetle, is not found except in
manure and never does any damage to
plant growth; so one need not fear i'll
effects from applying manure. For
the white grub common salt is as
good as anything he knows of. One
man reports having used ton and
half to the acre with good results. He
sowed it broadcast and plowed it in,
and the salt was a help rather than a
damage to the crop. Skunks and rae
coons are valuable in getting out the
grubs. There are two sides to most
things, and there are two sides to the
skunk-and two ends likewise, and
with the front end he digs out good
many grubs, as well as assisting at
Matching eggs and marketing chickens.
TO kill the May beetle the trees on
which they cluster at early evening
may be Jared, when they will fall on a
sheet placed below, and thus gathered
and destroyed. Many are caught by
placing a shallow vessel, in which kero-
sene has been put, before a window,
and then setting a light behind the
window. For cabbage-worms hand
picking is as good as anything. In
large patches saltpeter might do, using
tablespoonful to eight quarts of
water. Another insect pest is a mag
got which burrows in the apple, an en-
tirely different thing from the common
apple-worm, the larva of the cod
ling moth. This worm burrows in
the substance of the apple under the
skin, so while the outside of the apple
is fair the inside is all traversed with its
course. Not much is known of its
habits and life, but, according to sew
eral observers, the fly, the perfect in
sect, lays its egg on the apple, near the
blow-end, about July; it soon matches
out the maggot, which then eats into
the apple and burrows there, as de-
scribed. In the fall it leaves the apple,
falls to the ground and burrows there
through the winter in a chrysalis state,
to come forth again in the spring.
Some doubts are held as to this theory,
as the maggots are sometimes found in
the apple in winter. Some varieties of
apples are afflicted more than others,
generally the earlier and softer kinds.
The Spitzenbergs, among his apples,
are often affected, while the Northern
Spy is rarely so. The Persian insect
powder is the powdered plant nearly
resembling our May-weed, and is en-
trely harmless to the human family,
though so destructive to insect life
The canker-worms are male and female.
The male only has wings, the female
being able to only crawl-and she gets
up the tree that way. Any method
which will prevent her crawling up the
trunk of the tree will prevent the
ravages of this pest, as the female lays
her eggs near the ends of the twigs,
which hatch out, and the larva then
begins the work of destruction. About
the first of June it spins silken thread
and lets itself down to the ground,
which it enters to remain till spring,
then to emerge and go through the I'M
varying transformations. A band of
tarred paper around the trunk of the
tree, or if the trunk be covered with
melted India rubber, will prevent the
ascent of the female while it is sticky
enough to hold them. For bark-lice and
borcrs an emulsion of carbolic acid and
strong soap-suds will do as well as any
thing. The trouble is the bark-louse
gets under the rough bark and is there
fore hard to reach. If the trees are
scraped to remove that bark, and then
washed, it will be an effective method.
In the plant-louse, or more properly
the aphis, there are some peculiar con-
ditions. The female lays an egg which
matches into wingless, seXless indi-
vidual, and these have the power of
producing living youug-as many as
hundred or more-which in turn have
the same power; hence the wonderful
increase. So where lady sees two or
three on plant she is surprised in
few days to find it covered with them.
Professor Perkins lecture was listened
to with great interest and was thor
oughly enjoyed by all present.
EVENING SESSION.
The meeting was opened with music
by an excellent local orchestra of young
people-all school children who PLAYED